Sell Your American Dream While Abroad – What You Need To Know

You’re ready to Sell Your American Dream While Abroad? If you are like I am, you’re ready to do it now, and gotta find out what you need to know.

I’m like most people in that I was sold the idea that “Your American Dream” is overextending yourself with a mortgage, a truck payment, an RV payment, and the bills associated with it all.

You’re not alone!

When I first thought about how I fell for it, I started looking for ways to live life differently.

I wanted more experiences in life, and wanted to achieve the satisfaction of building my life by my own hands (without being a slave to the corporate world any longer, or being an employee of a job where I felt stuck, and anchored to a place I didn’t belong.)

So what did I do?

I started to sell EVERYTHING!

Erin, my Adventure Partner, had been selling all her stuff in Toronto, and I had already been getting rid of materialistic stuff on Craig’s List for quite some time.

As we learned the step-by-step process for putting up our blog, and learning how to monetize it (so we can make income online, of course), we found out that by building our business online, we are able to get rid of everything!

I had flown up to Toronto to help Erin move out of her place, and she had already sold everything!

The sale was all about Selling Your American Dream so that you can be free financially, be Location Independent, and be free to Love Deeper, Travel Broader, and Live An Extraordinary Life!

The Estate Sale was a HUGE Hit! Sold almost everything, and had only a few boxes left to donate to a Charity.

The only thing left… Sell The House!

Sell Your American Dream

The first step to Selling YOUR American Dream is to get a Realtor, and let them take care of everything!

Seriously, if you are not going to be in the house, who cares where you are in the world?

This is the second time I’ve sold a house, and the first time it ended in me spending a whole 15 minutes signing a couple pieces of paper.

Why do I have to be here to sign?

The answer is… YOU DON’T!

You do not need to be present to sign!

BUT, you DO have to get official signatures and return the original closing documents back to the Title Company.

NOTICE: I am not a tax professional, a Realtor, or of any official capacity to tell you EXACTLY what is accepted in your country. I’m merely a dude who has successfully sold My American Dream while abroad. What I share with you here is what my Realtor and Certified Tax Professional advised me as I went through the process. Everyone’s situation is different and I HIGHLY recommend you follow their advice because laws vary from country to country, state to state, county to county, and jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

What Are Your Options?

I successfully sold my house in Texas while abroad. When it came down to closing day, I was in Honduras and I insisted that there was no way I was going to fly back to Texas for a signature.

I learned that you could do a few things to close on a house abroad and Sell Your American Dream! Why I found this interesting is that properties are sold constantly, and there’s no way that EVERYONE is “present” on closing day.

So these are a few options that they told me would work for my situation and for the future:

Sign before you leave to travel abroad.

Give Power of Attorney to a lawyer, relative, or friend who could be present for closing day.

Sign Your Closing Documents YOURSELF While Abroad! (This is the option I ended up doing)

Getting Your Documents

The title company was INSISTING that they send me the PAPER documents to an address where I was located abroad.

If you have EVER been in a small country, there’s not usually an address that people can send you mail in a timely manner.

Another issue I had was that my Adventure Partner, and I were traveling! We were not even in a place long enough to receive mail, even if there WAS an address!

So how did I get the documents?

Through the E-Mail!

No kidding! They emailed us the PDF documents while we were in Utila, Honduras, and we went to a copy shop in Tegucigalpa, Honduras with a USB Drive in hand. We had them print out the 25 pages.

If you are insistent on doing things YOUR way, you will be surprised on how Selling YOUR American Dream While Abroad can be so much fun, and quite an adventure!

Getting An “Official” Notary Signature

I think that it is funny that SOME things can be signed electronically through services like DocuSign, while other things are stuck in the archaic past.

For instance, I was able to have my retirement investments moved around from one retirement plan to another by just making a phone call. They wanted notarized documents, which I sent, and they never received. So when I called them a month later asking why the transfer had not been done, they just processed it… hmmm… interesting…

When it comes to signing closing documents abroad, they are a little more strict on WHO can be the authorizing signature.

While in Utila, I talked with a Realtor named Brad who said that any Judge or Justice Of The Peace could sign.

The title company said, “No… that will not be sufficient.”

Rather than just saying, “NO” to me… give me a reason! I’m a big boy, and can handle a conversation!

Come to find out, different counties, states, countries, etc… have different signature requirements for Land Deeds.

The county in Texas where the house was being sold, required an original wet ink signature with an original notary stamp. You know… Old school!

And the local authorities are the ones who bound the hands of people making land transactions, not the title company! (But they didn’t tell me that until I asked!)

So WHERE do you get an official signature?

At the US Embassy or Signing at the American Consulate in whatever country you are currently located.

We ended up making a detour while on our travels to head from Utila, Honduras to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, which housed the main US Embassy for that country.

Be prepared to pay some cash for those signatures!

I know that ink is expensive in other countries, but be prepared to pay some bucks! I needed a total of 5 Notary Stamps/Seals, which cost $50 USD per EACH!

It’s funny how I can go to a UPS Store in Texas and get a Notary Stamp from some teenage clerk behind the counter and it cost $6 USD / Each… VERY Official!

Alas… We are travelers, and are doing “official” transactions abroad! I’ll pay the money because it is cheaper than flying back!

Mailing Your American Dream

Now that we got the Documents Printed, and Officially Signed, it’s time to ship!

You gotta be in a place that has an “overnight” sort of service. I say “overnight” loosely because it took two days for overnight service to go from Honduras to the US.

Not bad! I’m happy with that and the title company didn’t seem to mind much, considering I’ve already thrown so many curve balls at them!

We ended up finding a UPS Customer Center in Tegucigalpa that could handle shipping 30 pieces of paper, and they only charged about $100 USD to do it! (still a cheaper combined cost than flying back to Texas! “Take my money!”)

So be sure to use a service that is recognized for global shipping, who offers insurance, signature delivery, “overnight” option, and DEFINITELY an online tracking number (because you are going to want to track that package!)

We used UPS, but there’s other carriers like FedEx and DHL who also offer similar services. UPS just happened to be the closest location to walk to from the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

What Your American Dream Looks Like Now!

It was quite an experience selling everything. The US Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras was absolutely amazing to me! There were HUNDREDS of people in line there. When I walked up to one of the security guards to ask which line I needed to be in, he escorted me to the front of all the lines and let me in before EVERYONE else. I guess everyone else were Hondurans wanting to travel to the US, while I am an American, and was allowed to be served first.

In no way did I expect that, and I was more than happy to wait my turn. BUUUTTT I’m super happy that they did that for me! Thank You guys!

Now life is looking amazing!

Your American Dream doesn’t have to be stuck behind a desk, in a job you hate, in a City you care less for, or in terrible relationships…

You don’t have to be in a place of dissatisfaction, and to feel lack.

If you want Your American Dream to change, it is all about the decisions we make in life. We can each make our dreams come true.

It is up to YOU to take action in YOUR life to make that happen.

As I sit here writing this blog post for you, my Adventure Partner is by my side, and we have a view of the ocean in our own private cove, in Bahía La Redonda, Nicaragua.

Everything is sold… I mean EVERYTHING!

All we own are what’s in our carry-on backpacks, and laptop bags.

We have each other… We have our BE Adventure Partners business we created online, 12 months ago in July 2016… And we are showing others what we did to make it happen for us, so that YOU can model our online business building approach!

It truly is not Rocket Science, or Brain Surgery…

Rather, it is realizing in yourself that you want more in life…
You want to Live Extraordinarily…
You want to BE with the ones you love…
You want to experience a life that your dreams are made of!

We are living proof that when you have an IDEA, and take action by learning a new skill so that you can be free… guess what? You can truly be free, and experience independence like you have never before!

Along our journey, people have asked us about what we do, how we did it, and ask for guidance on How You Can Do It For Yourself.

Right now we are writing, and producing a course that’s going to get you going!

In Conclusion…

It’s totally possible to close on your US house while abroad. First talk with your Realtor about what they will need from you. If you are able to sign early, go do it because THAT will save you money, and time. If you are just itching to go, how Erin and I were, make sure you keep your Realtor in the loop on where you’ll be so that they can help out as much as possible.

BE flexible, and know that you are probably going to have to go to a US Embassy if you are traveling like we are. So plan on being near a big city that has a US Embassy or Consulate.

You can totally Sell Your American Dream, and become Location Independent! We are proof YOU can do it!

14 Comments

Man this is awesome! You guys are living life on your terms and that is what it is all about. Being able to travel and spend time with the one’s you love is priceless. And add to the fact that you are able to earn income online means you can be pretty much anywhere in the world and make money, the truly laptop lifestyle.

You totally can do this, Ryan! We are all capable of becoming more in our lives! Take a look around and you’ll find some more interesting articles about How To BEcome A Digital Nomad that will help you out! Message us any time!